A study commissioned by BT shows half a million homes in the UK have more than 15 connected devices, and each person spends 4.2 hours online every day.

New research reveals that the average connected household spends almost 10 hours online each day

How many devices in your home connect to the internet? Chances are you’ve never counted, but you’ll probably be surprised at the total. New research conducted by BT shows that 500,000 people live in homes where more than 15 devices are hooked up to their broadband.

It’s the less obvious devices that you may not have considered which increase the count. Beyond laptops, smartphones and tablets, there are also smart TVs, DVRs, Blu-ray players, webcams, games consoles and even weather stations and baby monitors.

According to the results, 17 percent of respondents have a smart TV but 20 percent of them remain offline.

The main problem is that their router is too far from the TV, which typically doesn’t have built-in Wi-Fi. Powerline network adapters are an inexpensive solution to the problem, using your home’s existing ‘network’ of mains wiring to connect your TV (or any other device with a network port) to your router. See also: How to set up powerline network adapters

15 years online

The survey also found that the average home spent a total of almost 10 hours online, and that 71 percent lived in homes where people used the internet from their bedroom. 12 percent said people got online from the bathroom as well, so it’s well worth knowing how to clean your gadgets if looking at Facebook while on the loo is one of your less appealing habits.

Using national averages in terms of the number of people living in each home and average lifespan, BT worked out that you could spend 15.2 years online – an average of 4.2 hours per day.